On the trail of a modern political mystery

So why has Geelong seemingly turned on the Bracks Government? Gary Tippet investigates the poser.

Down by the water at Geelong early yesterday afternoon, it was pretty close to what my old dad might have called a wouldn't-be-dead-for-quids day. Warm, fresh with a gusty wind that teased the lunchers leaving the foreshore restaurants, drove flocks of fat clouds across the sky and bobbed the moored yachts in the chop of Corio Bay.

Mayor Barbara Abley chose the most fitting nautical adjective to describe the mood of the city. The place was "buoyant".

"Geelong is very buoyant. Its unemployment is lower than the state average by several percentage points, the growth and development within the building industry is phenomenal, streets ahead of our counterparts across the state. The city is on the up and up.

"It certainly hit a rough patch, post-Pyramid, but it's well on its way back to recovery and beyond."

Which raises the question of why, then, have the city's voters seemingly turned on the State Government - which, to all intents and purposes, they put into power. According to a poll in the Geelong Advertiser yesterday, the Liberals have a clear five percentage-point lead over Labor in the seat of Geelong - a massive turnaround over the last poll in July, when the government was more than six points ahead. The seat is already a knife-edge marginal.");document.write("

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Encompassing the central business district and inner suburbs, in 1999 it went to Labor by 16 votes and gave Steve Bracks a chance to form government.

Mayor Abley, non-aligned to either party, points to the buzzing foreshore, the newly opened baseball complex and the new "21st century" botanic gardens as evidence of the town's buoyancy and a growing sense that things are happening.

"Look at our footy team," she says. "Our seconds got up to win the VFL grand final and 15 of its members were under 21, so aren't they going to be crackerjacks in a couple of years' time? I liken Geelong's recovery to that. We're on the up and up."

Few in Geelong argue with her optimism. Property values are booming as more people choose a SeaChange option and move in from Melbourne, argues Mark Gingell, of the school of tourism, hospitality and cookery at Gordon Institute. Geelong's future, he suggests, is increasingly as a dormitory suburb of Melbourne.

And that, says Keith Fotherington, managing director of Acumen Computer Systems, might provide the reason why locals are disenchanted with Labor. It's not the town that's the problem, he claims, but the road between it and Melbourne.

The seemingly interminable works on Geelong Road, with their speed restrictions and long traffic snarls, are to many commuters a symbol of the Bracks Government's "can't-do" nature, claims Mr Fotherington. "It's just dragged on for two years. Anybody who has to drive that road is pretty much cursing the government all the way.

Back on the foreshore, Mr Whizzy Ice Cream van operator Marie Ramos, says many in Geelong miss the buzz of the Kennett years, when Geelong seemed to be a priority for the government. "Things were happening - the foreshore here was redeveloped, you felt there was a push to do things for Geelong - but it's all slowed down again."

The former editor-in-chief of the Geelong Advertiser, Daryl McLure, agrees - at least with the perception. "Geelong is a pretty conservative place but I think there is a feeling down here that Bracks is a pretty bland sort of person and hasn't made much happen," he said.